California's Voting
Systems Panel Approves IRV-Compatible Equipment for Use in San Francisco

April 9, 2004

The last obstacle to the implementation of instant runoff voting in San
Francisco fell away when the Voting Systems Panel approved the use of ES&S's
IRV-compatible voting equipment for the November election for supervisor.

The process of approving voting equipment (and associated software) for use
in public elections is somewhat arcane, but it involves testing by federal and
state technical consultants followed by a review by the Voting Systems Panel
(VSP) The testing took place from March 10-12 in Rockford,
Illinois.

At the request of the vendor and with the permission of the Secretary of
State, CVD's senior analyst Caleb Kleppner observed the testing and submitted a report on the IRV testing. In short, the
equipment accurately recorded and tallied all IRV ballots that were fed into the
equipment. The Center for Voting and Democracy believes that the presence
of a qualified, third party observer enhances the certification process,
increases the transparency of the election process and boosts public
confidence in the election process. We hope that this developments
contributes to greater openness in all aspects of elections.

The staff of the VSP prepared a staff report
recommending approval, and on April 8, 2004, the Voting System Panel approved
the voting equipment with a few conditions that are typical for approvals of new
systems. These conditions include making the ballot more voter friendly,
initiating voter education, and enhancing the written procedures that describe
how to use the system.

To give the public an idea of how the ES&S system works, we have posted
four reports from a test election with about 4,500 IRV ballots and 170 non-IRV
ballots. It contained three IRV races: Board of Leisure, Board of
Recreation, and Director of Entertainment.